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March 1 st: Paphiopedilum Maudiae Hybrids Speaker: Tim Culbertson

Although I teach middle school kids for a living, one of my passions has always been plants. I began growing orchids as an offshoot from working at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia just after college. From the very beginning it was all about Paphs, particularly awarded and selected clones of historic importance, of which my collection numbers nearly 3000. While I love finding old, rare stepping stones in Paph. breeding, I also do a little hybridizing of my own, and growing up my own babies is a blast. I am the youngest accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and have served in various capacities with various orchid societies in California and on the East Coast. I love meeting other people who like orchids too, and doing so often finds me traveling to shows, vendors, and peoples’ greenhouses to see the latest and greatest in new hybrids and to get the best orchid gossip. I like to be involved in plants as much as possible: in addition to Longwood, I’ve worked at the Smithsonian Institution tending to their orchids, and for years for the United States National Arboretum, collecting rare plants and documenting cultivated species and hybrids for their herbarium. In short, I really like plants. For your meeting, I’ll be sharing a presentation on Maudiae-type Paphs. These plants are easy to grow and flower, are vigorous, and have low demands on light and fertilizer, and as such are wonderful plants! Tremendous advancements in breeding Maudiae-type Paphs have been made recently, and I will share some of these with you, as well as help identify some of the important species in the backgrounds of historically important and modern Maudiae-type Paphs. By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of what goes into breeding trends for these types of plants, as well as an appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth. I will be providing a plant table of the newest, modern, cutting-edge Maudiae-Paph-style breeding, with both blooming and un-bloomed plants.

Please join us on Wednesday, November 2nd, at the Sepulveda Garden Center, as we present “The genus Sarcochilus, its charm and ease of growth”.

Carol Beule is an EMMY award winning Costume Designer with a Master of Fine Arts in both Costume and Lighting Design from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has been a professional Costume Designer since 1974, when she joined United Scenic Artists, a NYC based entertainment Union consisting of the creative personnel for designing film, commercials, theater productions and TV shows.

Growing orchids in NYC was not considered a possibility, so she has grown orchids only since moving to Southern California in 1992. Growing outside with no greenhouse in Studio City at the edge of the San Fernando Valley is sometimes problematic. With temperatures ranging from 28 to 111 Fahrenheit, and humidity as low as 7% at times, it is always interesting. It has been her quest to find out what will and will not bloom and prosper under these circumstances. In her search to find the perfect plant for her growing area, Carol discovered the Japanese orchid called Neofinetia (Vanda) falcata and various other species that thrive outside in Southern California. Sarcochilus is one of those species. Carol grows various forms of Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis, Cattleya, Laelia, Dendrobium, Lycaste, Asian Cymbidium and Rossioglossum. Sarcochilus is a charming but smaller flowered species of orchids and is native to Australia. While they are often thought to be the “perfect” undergrowth plant for Standard Cymbidiums, they can be grown alongside Cattleyas and any other outdoor growing temperate climate range orchid. They can become beautiful “specimen” plants and are now starting to come in a wider range of colors due to intensive breeding by Scott Barrie and his family at Barrita Orchids in Australia. Fred Clarke, of Sunset Valley Orchids, is the US distributor for these Barrita hybrids. Carol is an AOS Probationary Judge, the 1st VP and a Member of the Orchid Society of Southern California, serves on the Board of Orchid Digest and is on the committee that creates the Society’s display for the Huntington’s annual October Orchid Show. She now is semi-retired and is starting a new business venture: “Nichi Bachi (decorative pots) by Beule” to make Neofinetia and Cymbidium presentation pots. Carol will bring some of these pots along with her for members to see examples of her work.